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DINING ACROSS ANCHORAGE Reviews and Photography by Robert F. Gabella Anchorage, Alaska, mid-June. Picture the crisp Alaskan scenery; the burgeoning development of a Little Big City of 300,000 --- barely able to contain itself through rapid, haphazard construction and snarling traffic; and the blinding and beautiful late Spring sun, which circles the horizon at a low angle for nearly the entire day, inducing near-hallucination in the uninitiated! I am a former resident, but was still confounded - and eventually sunburnt, as many visitors are, by the low-slung golden orb, since I got off the plane on the sunniest June day imaginable! But NEVER complain about a sunny day in Anchorage, as the week-long stretch of warm, sunny late Spring weather I experienced was a godsend, a pristine miracle, and served as a welcome backdrop to a surprising array of restaurants of equally surprising quality. Sure, there are run of the mill Tex-Mex cantinas; pizza joints, both independents and chains not found east of the Mississippi. where you can get reindeer sausage, halibut, or other local fare added to your pie; a least one East Indian restaurant with very good food which I sampled as take out (one resident cautioned was best that way due to very poor table service). Thai and other Asian restaurants abound, too, along with the typical range of burger joints and fast food chains which, were it not for the scenery, would likely look just like home to anyone not willing to stray into the culinary realm of the local. However, there are some remarkable establishments with creative chefs AND brew masters, churning out far better than average fare, Alaska style. They give the lower 48 a gastronomic run for the money, and four of the more interesting are reviewed here.
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